davebem

Dave Bermingham has been an IT professional since 1991. In 2004 he started work at SIOS Technology and began to focus on high availability and disaster recovery solutions for Windows and Linux applications. He has been a Microsoft MVP since 2010 with a current focus on high availability for SQL server and other applications running in the Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. He also maintains the blog Clustering for Mere Mortals where he writes many step-by-step guides and other resources in the area of his expertise. You can commonly find him speaking at SQL Saturday events and other conferences, generally on high availability and disaster recovery options for SQL Server.
  • Interests: high availability, disaster recovery, cloud

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Blogs

Car Update: August 2026

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It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...

Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To

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An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...

SQL Server Security Hardening Guide Using the DoD STIG Checklist

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Security on your SQL Server is important. That doesn’t need any explaining. But where...

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Forums

Backing Up a DMK

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK

The Quiet Part

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Quiet Part

BIT_COUNT in SQL Server

By john.martin

Comments posted to this topic are about the item BIT_COUNT in SQL Server

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Question of the Day

Backing Up a DMK

In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?

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